AMPLIFIER

Amplifier is the generic term used to describe a circuit which produces and increased version of its input signal. However, not all amplifier circuits are
the same as they are classified according to their circuit configurations and modes of operation.
In “Electronics”, small signal amplifiers are commonly used devices as they have the ability to amplify a relatively small input signal, for example from
a Sensor such as a photo-device, into a much larger output signal to drive a relay, lamp or loudspeaker for example.
There are many forms of electronic circuits classed as amplifiers, from Operational Amplifiers and Small Signal Amplifiers up to Large Signal and
Power Amplifiers. The classification of an amplifier depends upon the size of the signal, large or small, its physical configuration and how it processes
the input signal, that is the relationship between input signal and current flowing in the load.
The type or classification of an Amplifier is given in the following table.

Classification of Signal Amplifier

Type of Frequency of
Type of Signal Classification
Configuration Operation

Small Signal Common Emitter Class A Amplifier Direct Current (DC)

Large Signal Common Base Class B Amplifier Audio Frequencies (AF)

Class AB
  Common Collector Radio Frequencies (RF)
Amplifier

VHF, UHF and SHF

Amplifiers can be thought of as a simple box or block containing the amplifying device, such as a Bipolar Transistor, Field Effect Transistor or
Operational Amplifier, which has two input terminals and two output terminals (ground being common) with the output signal being much greater than
that of the input signal as it has been “Amplified”.
An ideal signal amplifier will have three main properties: Input Resistance or (RIN), Output Resistance or (ROUT) and of course amplification known
commonly as Gain or (A). No matter how complicated an amplifier circuit is, a general amplifier model can still be used to show the relationship of
these three properties.

Amplifier Gain
Gain is basically a measure of how much an amplifier “amplifies” the input signal. For example, if we have an input signal of 1 volt and an output of 50
volts, then the gain of the amplifier would be “50”. In other words, the input signal has been increased by a factor of 50. This increase is called Gain.
Amplifier gain is simply the ratio of the output divided-by the input. Gain has no units as its a ratio, but in Electronics it is commonly given the symbol
“A”, for Amplification. Then the gain of an amplifier is simply calculated as the “output signal divided by the input signal”.

There are three different kinds of amplifier gain which can be measured and these are: Voltage Gain ( Av ), Current Gain ( Ai ) and Power Gain ( Ap )
depending upon the quantity being measured with examples of these different types of gains are given below.

Amplifier Gain of the Input Signal

Voltage Amplifier Gain

Current Amplifier Gain

Power Amplifier Gain

The power gain (Ap) or power level of the amplifier can also be expressed
in Decibels, (dB). The Bel (B) is a logarithmic unit (base 10) of measurement
that has no units. Since the Bel is too large a unit of measure, it is prefixed
with deci making it Decibels instead with one decibel being one tenth (1/10th)
of a Bel. To calculate the gain of the amplifier in Decibels or dB, we can use
the following expressions.
  Voltage Gain in dB:   av  =  20*log(Av)
  Current Gain in dB:   ai  =  20*log(Ai)
Power Gain in dB:   ap  =  10*log(Ap)
Generally, amplifiers can be sub-divided into two distinct types depending
upon their power or voltage gain. One type is called the Small Signal
Amplifier which include pre-amplifiers, instrumentation amplifiers etc. Small
signal amplifies are designed to amplify very small signal voltage levels of
only a few micro-volts (μV) from sensors or audio signals.
The other type are called Large Signal Amplifiers such as audio power
amplifiers or power switching amplifiers. Large signal amplifiers are designed
to amplify large input voltage signals or switch heavy load currents as you
would find driving loudspeakers.

Power Amplifiers
The Small Signal Amplifier is generally referred to as a “Voltage” amplifier
because they usually convert a small input voltage into a much larger output
voltage. Sometimes an amplifier circuit is required to drive a motor or feed a
loudspeaker and for these types of applications where high switching currents
are needed Power Amplifiers are required.
As their name suggests, the main job of a “Power Amplifier” (also known as a
large signal amplifier), is to deliver power to the load, and as we know from
above, is the product of the voltage and current applied to the load with the
output signal power being greater than the input signal power. In other words,
a power amplifier amplifies the power of the input signal which is why these
AMPLIFIER

types of amplifier circuits are used in audio amplifier output stages to drive
loudspeakers.
The power amplifier works on the basic principle of converting the DC power
drawn from the power supply into an AC voltage signal delivered to the load.
Although the amplification is high the efficiency of the conversion from the DC
power supply input to the AC voltage signal output is usually poor.
The perfect or ideal amplifier would give us an efficiency rating of 100% or at
least the power “IN” would be equal to the power “OUT”. However, in reality
this can never happen as some of the power is lost in the form of heat and
also, the amplifier itself consumes power during the amplification process.
Then the efficiency of an amplifier is given as:

Amplifier Efficiency